Catholic Charities continues its legacy of walking with adoptees and families from St. Vincent’s Orphanage for more than 100 years. The Catholic Charities Post-Adoption team provides search and reunion services, mediated communications between birth and adoptive families, individual counseling and support group meetings.
Last year, we served 150 individuals and we’re expecting many to join us at this year’s Homecoming Mass and Reunion, being held Sept. 20.
The Homecoming Mass and Reunion draws guests from all over the United States, and they’ll come with relatives to experience it together and tell their stories. It’s a special day of homecoming, reconnection and experiencing the loving, caring atmosphere of St. Vincent’s.
This gathering brings everything back for our guests — the babies, childcare technicians, adoptive parents and families. Together, they have so much emotion and connection to St. Vincent’s that you can feel it in the air.
Founded in 1881 by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Vincent’s Infant and Maternity Hospital, 721 N. LaSalle Ave., served women and children with the support of Catholic Charities social services until it closed in 1972, when the state moved to a foster care model.
The building is now Catholic Charities’ headquarters.
It was a starting point for babies born to teen and single mothers, some left as foundlings by its doors, or serving as temporary housing for children who could no longer be supported by their families due to war, poverty and illness.
Serving 232 children and 35-plus mothers-to-be at a time, St. Vincent’s was a safe haven for many, caring for tens of thousands of children over the decades. Its history is filled with memories of babies in buggies being trotted down Michigan Avenue, its halls filled with children’s laughter and music from the young childcare technicians who cared for the children as if they were their very own.
As these adoptees came into adulthood and had questions about their history, our Post-Adoption Services expanded. Catholic Charities carries forward its commitment to adoptive families and babies, even though it no longer facilitates adoptions. We offer support groups for birth and adoptive parents and adoptees, and we assist with searches for birth parents and adoptees.
I am a licensed clinical social worker who joined the maternity and adoption services department 38 years ago and discovered the important work we do every day. We have the ability to make a difference in people’s lives and support them in crucial ways during what could be an existential crisis.
The search process can be a time when adoptees feel alone. We walk with them through this process, connect them with other people who were adopted and show them respect, care, empathy and the dignity they deserve.
The social worker plays a critical role in preparing the searching person for this emotional process and supporting them throughout. One adoptee I recently worked with was connected with her birth mother, who just turned 100 years old.
Even though it had been more than 60 years since the adoption, they now stay in contact, celebrate each other’s birthdays together and have a great relationship. They are grateful to Catholic Charities for connecting them because now both of their lives are enriched and both feel lucky the other is in their life.
For an adoptee to be able to look for the first time into the eyes of someone who gave birth to them 60 years ago is life changing. For adoptees to hear from a birth mother, “I loved you and cared about you and that’s why I gave you up for adoption,” can bring about a feeling of completeness, and they no longer feel such a void in their lives.